Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Energy Charter Treaty

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the UK's membership of the Energy Charter Treaty does not affect progress towards environmental targets.

Graham Stuart: On 24 June 2022, Contracting Parties came to an agreement in principle on the amendments to modernise the Energy Charter Treaty. The modernised Energy Charter Treaty recognises the urgent need to address climate change and align with the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement. It promotes an accelerated energy transition and reduces the risk of successful challenge to UK net zero policies.

Care Homes: Energy

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department is taking steps to include residential care homes in the domestic energy price cap.

Graham Stuart: Those care home residents that pay individually for their energy, i.e. they have their own gas and/or electricity meters, will be captured by the domestic energy price cap. Whereas, the care home itself will be captured by the non-domestic scheme if energy bills are paid for centrally by the business running the care home. The Department will soon introduce legislation to ensure the cost savings are passed on to residents.

Torness Power Station: Closures

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether risk assessments have been undertaken to assess the risk of Torness nuclear power station having to go offline before 2028.

Graham Stuart: Torness, like other Advanced Gas-Cooled reactor power stations, is subject to graphite cracking, which limits its safe operational life. Operational dates of the nuclear fleet are kept under constant review by EDF and the Office for Nuclear Regulator (ONR) with any extensions being agreed between them. The Department is in regular communication with EDF and the ONR but has no formal role in these decisions.

Electricity Generation

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Ofgem consultation document entitled RIIO-ED2 Draft Determinations, Overview Document, published on 29 June 2022, if he will hold discussions with Ofgem on its proposals for (a) quality of supply capital funding and (b) the Interruptions Incentive Scheme, in the context of the recommendations made for a net zero energy system in his Department's paper entitled Electricity networks strategic framework, published on 4 August 2022.

Graham Stuart: The Government regularly engages with Ofgem as it carries out its role setting the price control framework to regulate electricity network companies.

Solar Power: Housing

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 25 July 2022 to Question 37516 on Solar Power, if he will take steps to increase the installation of domestic solar panels by enabling households with solar panels and battery storage to receive the rate of wholesale electricity as payment for excess electricity exported to the grid for the next three years.

Graham Stuart: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given by my Rt. Hon. Friend the then Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth on 25th July 2022 to Question 37516.

Fracking: Cheshire

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential environmental impact of shale gas extraction on communities in (a) Weaver Vale constituency and (b) Cheshire.

Graham Stuart: Exploration or development of shale gas will need to meet rigorous safety and environmental standards, including those set by the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive.

Fossil Fuels

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer given on 10 March 2021 to Question 161735, on Fossil Fuels, what recent assessment he has made of the compatibility of extracting and burning (a) the remaining estimated 3,906 million tonnes of UK coal resources, including prospects, and (b) the remaining estimated 10 to 20 billion barrels or more of recoverable oil equivalent resources in the UK continental shelf, with meeting targets in (i) the sixth carbon budget and (ii) the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Graham Stuart: Any use of unabated fossil fuels in the UK will be compatible with carbon budgets under the 2008 Climate Act.

Heating Oil: Rural Areas

David Warburton: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to support households in rural areas with the rising cost of domestic heating oil.

Graham Stuart: Households not on standard gas or electricity contracts, such as those in rural areas, will receive equivalent support to that provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, and the Energy Price Guarantee. The Government is working at pace to determine the most practical and tested routes to deliver this support. As part of this, for households who do not use gas for domestic heating, the Government has committed to provide an additional payment of £100 to compensate for the rising costs of other fuels such as coal.

Business: Energy

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the support needs of businesses after his proposed six months of Government support has expired.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Bill Relief Scheme, announced on 21 September 2022, will initially run for 6 months covering energy use from 1st October 2022 until 31st March 2023. The Government will publish a review of the scheme in 3 months, which will consider how best to offer further support to customers who are the most vulnerable to energy price increases.

Business: Energy

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the support required to help businesses to improve their energy efficiency.

Graham Stuart: The Government keeps energy efficiency support for businesses, including SMEs, under review. Existing initiatives include an exemption on business rates for green technology, providing small businesses grants under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, and offering industry £289m for energy efficiency and low carbon technologies.

Energy: Standing Charges

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a cap on energy standing charges.

Graham Stuart: The standing charge reflects the on-going costs that fall on a supplier to provide and maintain a live supply to a customer’s premises. Standing charges are capped under the price cap and ensure millions of households pay a fair price for their energy.

Electricity and Natural Gas: Prices

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of decoupling gas and electricity wholesale prices.

Graham Stuart: The Government has recently announced a package of support for consumers and non-domestic customers that will provide people with certainty on energy bills. This includes negotiating new long term energy contracts with domestic and international gas suppliers, accelerating all sources of domestic energy, including North Sea oil and gas production, speeding up our deployment of all clean and renewable technologies including hydrogen, solar, carbon capture and storage, and wind, and also working with electricity generators to reform the outdated market structure where gas sets the price for all electricity. The Government recently launched The Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) - a major review into Britain’s electricity market design, which is considering ways of increasing investment in low carbon capacity which would result in gas-fired generation being the price setter for electricity less often, and reforms to the wholesale market which could decouple gas and electricity prices.

Heating Oil: Northern Ireland

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to publish details on the operation of the energy support scheme for households using home heating oil in Northern Ireland.

Graham Stuart: Households not on standard gas or electricity contracts, such as those using home heating oil, will receive equivalent support to that provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, and the Energy Price Guarantee. The Government is working at speed to determine the most practical and tested routes to deliver this support and will publish details in due course.

District Heating: Finance

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether heat network consumers not able to access the existing Default Tariff Price Cap will have access to the discretionary fund to be established to provide financial support for those not eligible for the Energy Bill Support Scheme or the new Energy Price Guarantee announced on 8 September 2022.

Graham Stuart: Households not on standard gas or electricity contracts, such as those on heat networks – and so outside of the support schemes – will receive support equivalent to both the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bills Support Scheme. The Government is working at speed to determine the most practical and tested routes to deliver this support.

Energy: Price Caps

Stewart Malcolm McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the energy price cap to business energy contracts which are agreed for the purpose of supplying energy to communal areas of residential buildings.

Graham Stuart: The energy price cap addresses the loyalty penalty that certain groups of domestic customers were found to be paying. The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a discount on wholesale gas and electricity prices for eligible non-domestic customers whose prices have been significantly inflated due to global energy prices. The Scheme will initially run for 6 months from 1st October 2022 until 31st March 2023, with a review to be published after 3 months. We expect businesses and other organisations to pass on the benefits to the end user in a reasonable way, which will ensure support for customers paying for energy through a contract with their landlord.

Department of Health and Social Care

Polio: Vaccination

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including a polio vaccination for children in London aged one to nine as part of the schools vaccination programme.

Dr Caroline Johnson: On 10 August 2022, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that an inactivated polio vaccine booster campaign should be implemented for children aged one to nine years old in all London boroughs. To ensure rapid deployment and high uptake, NHS England decided to use general practitioner practices and community vaccine sites as the primary route for the booster programme. Use of school aged providers was not considered optimal since there are currently no primary school-based vaccination programmes in England with the exception of flu, which uses a different delivery model.

Neurology: Children

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to reduce waiting times for children's neurodevelopmental assessments.

Dr Caroline Johnson: Integrated care boards are expected to have regard to the relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines when commissioning services, including assessments for children with neurodevelopmental conditions. In 2021/22, we invested £13 million through the NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19 Mental Health Recovery Plan to reduce waiting times for autism diagnoses. This included £10.5 million to enable local systems to test different diagnostic pathways, explore ways to reduce waiting times and address backlogs caused by the pandemic and £2.5 million is allocated to test and implement ways to reduce waiting times for children and young people each year until March 2024. NHS England is developing a national framework for how children, young people and adults should receive an autism diagnosis to improve the quality of diagnostic processes and reduce waiting times. In addition, we have invested £600,000 to expand a pilot to improve early identification of autism and other neurodiverse conditions to at least 100 schools.. NHS England is working with local authorities’ children’s social care, education services and expert charities to support neurodivergent children, including children with ADHD, through the assessment and diagnostic process.

Coronavirus: Immunosuppression

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to provide those clinically vulnerable people for whom covid-19 vaccines do not work with support with (a) the practical consequences of shielding and (b) maintaining mental health and wellbeing; and if she will make a statement.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The success of the COVID-19 vaccination programme has meant that the requirement for shielding and identifying people as clinically extremely vulnerable is no longer necessary. However, there remains a smaller number of people whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19, despite vaccination. We have introduced enhanced protections that may benefit these groups, this includes free testing and enhanced access to therapeutic drugs, alongside public health guidance.The Department is continuing its work to find new drugs and explore the potential for new interventions, this includes the possibility of a study to test antibody levels in immunosuppressed patients who may have a limited or no response to vaccination.We would encourage everyone to make use of the mental health and wellbeing resources that are out there, such as Every Mind Matters or the Mental Health Hub on the National Health Service (NHS) website. The Government has also provided an additional £500 million for 2021/22, to accelerate our NHS mental health expansion plans and to target groups whose mental health have been most affected by the pandemic.

NHS: Locums

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of (a) removing locum caps and (b) ringfencing a new budget for NHS locum staff.

Robert Jenrick: In 2015, the Government introduced measures to reduce National Health Service spending on agency staff, including price caps, procurement frameworks and expenditure ceilings. These have contributed to a decrease in expenditure from £3.6 billion in 2015/16 to £2.4 billion in 2020/21. Removing such caps is therefore likely to increase the cost of temporary staffing and is not supported.We are urging a reduction in the use of agency staff and prioritising the use of in-house staff banks, as this ensures value for money for the healthcare system. However, this includes a provision to allow trusts to override rules on agency staffing on exceptional patient safety grounds. Trust boards have primary responsibility for monitoring the local impact of the agency rules and ensuring patient safety.While no specific assessment of ringfencing a new budget for NHS locum staff has been made, up to £120,000 per integrated care system or sustainability and transformation partnership has been made available in general practice for flexible pools to aid the process of recruiting and deploying general practitioners (GPs). GPs supported through the pool arrangement could have access to the flexibility of a locuming role, with the additional benefits of a salaried position. Locum caps on pay rates, used in secondary care, do not extend to primary care.

Community Nurses

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS nurses are working in a community setting in England as on 12 September 2022.

Robert Jenrick: NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England. These include National Health Service staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but excludes staff working in primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers. Within the statistics nurses are assigned a ‘setting’ in which their primary activities take place. The data shows that there are 59,374 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) nurses primarily within a community care setting, as at July 2022, the latest data available. The number of FTE nurses working primarily in a community setting has increased by 4,487 (8.2%) since July 2019. Community care settings are defined as community services, school nursing, community learning disability services and community mental health services. This number does not include health visitors.

Diseases: Ethnic Groups

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the prevalence of (a) diabetes, (b) heart disease, (c) hypertension, (d) high cholesterol, (e) obesity, (f) cancer, (g) poor eye health and (h) mental illness levels among people from the South Asian community in England; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Caroline Johnson: ‘Health Survey England Additional Analyses, Ethnicity and Health, 2011-2019 Experimental statistics’, published in June 2022, assesses the prevalence of commonly reported longstanding conditions, hypertension, diabetes and adult obesity. This data is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/health-survey-england-additional-analyses/ethnicity-and-health-2011-2019-experimental-statistics#data-setsThere are no recent estimates of raised cholesterol prevalence in South Asian ethnic groups in England. Data on the prevalence of child obesity by ethnic group are available from the National Child Measurement Programme. The latest data for 2021/21 show that prevalence of obesity in children aged four to five years old was below the national average for Indian children and above the national average for Bangladeshi and Pakistani children. In children aged 10 to 11 years old in 2021/20 prevalence of obesity was above the national average for Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani children.Cancer prevalence counts the number of people living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis at a fixed point in time. Data from National Cancer Registration Dataset shows that in 2019, 47,761 people in the South Asian community were diagnosed with cancer between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2019 and were alive on 31 December 2019.There is no national dataset that provides information on the prevalence of the main eye conditions. Estimates are derived from population modelling and information from the Certification of Vision Impairment (CVI) register. While the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is assessing the ethnicity data collected as part of the CVI register, no analysis has yet been completed.The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of 2014 provides prevalence estimates of some mental health conditions by broad ethnic group. The prevalence rates, taking account of age, in Asian/Asian British adults in England were 17.9% for common mental disorders; 5.8% screened positive for post-traumatic stress disorder; 0.9% for psychotic disorder in the last year; and 1.4% screened positive for bi-polar disorder. For all conditions except bi-polar disorder, although the prevalence is higher in the Asian group than the White British group it is not possible to say whether this is a statistically significant difference.

Nurses: Temporary Employment

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England has spent on agency nurses in each of the last five years.

Robert Jenrick: The following table shows expenditure on agency nurses in National Health Service providers from 2016/17 to 2020/21. The information requested for 2021/22 will be available in January 2023. 2016/172017/182018/192019/202020/21£966,198,000£808,662,000£843,282,000£878,521,000£837,823,000 Source:https://www.england.nhs.uk/financial-accounting-and-reporting/nhs-providers-tac-data-publications/

Mental Health Services: Children and Young People

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the document entitled Mental Health Support Teams for Children and Young People in Education: A Manual, published on the Healthy London Partnership website in October 2015, whether that is the most recent version of the manual provided by NHS England to Mental Health Support Teams.

Dr Caroline Johnson: ‘Mental Health Support Teams for Children and Young People in Education: A Manual’ was initially published on the Health London Partnership website in 2019. It is updated and issued to mental health support teams annually. The latest version will be available via the Healthy London Partnership website in due course.

HIV Infection

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the policy paper entitled Towards zero - an action plan towards ending HIV transmission, AIDS and HIV-related deaths in England - 2022 to 2025, published on 21 December 2021, for what reasons there were 4,600 people living with HIV who were attending NHS care but had missing evidence of viral suppression in 2019.

Dr Caroline Johnson: Data from the 2019 archive shows there were 98,552 people living with diagnosed HIV infection. Of these, 98% were virally suppressed or undetectable. These individuals cannot pass on HIV through sex even if not using condoms or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The 4,600 people for whom viral load was not reported to the HIV and AIDS Reporting System (HARS) for at least two consecutive years represents 4.7% of patients. One such reason why viral load is not reported is that in some outpatient services, the flow of laboratory data, such as viral load results, is not automated. Although this can be updated at the time of submission to the HARS, this does not always occur. While a patient may also have attended a clinic appointment, a blood sample may not have been taken.

Hospitals: Sign Language

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when (a) NHS England and (b) NHS Improvement will receive the independent review report from the North East of England Commissioning Support Unit on British Sign Language Interpreting Services within Hospitals.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In November 2020, NHS England commissioned the North of England Commissioning Support Unit to undertake a rapid review of British Sign Language (BSL) service provision in the National Health Service in England. The review was completed in May 2021 and contained 17 recommendations to address the identified health inequalities experienced by BSL users. The report and its recommendations were accepted by NHS England’s National Incident and Response Board on 16 June 2021. NHS England is continuing to work with integrated care systems to implement the recommendations.

Abortion: Analgesics

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 20 May 2022 to Question 604 and of 23 May 2022 to Question 2703, which stated that the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists were reviewing the latest evidence on fetal pain and fetal awareness, whether her Department has taken steps to help ensure that there is no conflict of interest in their guidelines.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department has not done so. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is an independent organisation, responsible for producing clinical guidelines which set standards for high quality women’s healthcare.

Coronavirus: Protective Clothing

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with which other Departments her Department has had discussions on the storage of PPE since 1 January 2022.

Robert Jenrick: Since January 2022, the Department has held discussions on the storage of personal protective equipment with the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and the Ministry of Defence.

Surgical Mesh Implants

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review entitled First Do No Harm, published on 8 July 2020, if he will make an estimate of the number of people with stress urinary incontinence who have been treated with mesh (a) slings and (b) tapes in (i) July 2018 to July 2019, (ii) July 2019 to July 2020, (iii) July 2020 to July 2021 and (iv) July 2021 to 11 July 2022.

Dr Caroline Johnson: There are no plans to make a specific estimate. Routine summary information relating to procedures for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence is regularly published as part of NHS Digital’s Hospital Episode Statistics data. However, since 2021/22 NHS Digital and NHS England have confirmed with individual trusts that specific treatments are as described for the activity recorded and it has been identified that some trusts have mis-coded procedures in the data used to produce these statistics.In line with recommendations from the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, NHS Digital has created a pelvic floor registry for mesh and non-mesh procedures. This will allow an accurate assessment of the number of people undergoing mesh sling and tape procedures in the future.Since July 2018 there has been a restriction in practice and period of high vigilance for the use of surgical mesh and tape to treat stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. This restriction was reviewed and extended in March 2019 and remains in place. Clinicians can still carry out these procedures with the informed consent of the patient if a multidisciplinary team agrees there is clinical urgency to carry out the procedure and there is no suitable alternative.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Pakistan: Disaster Relief

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of his Department's humanitarian support for Pakistan after the flooding in summer 2022.

Vicky Ford: The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan, as it faces the consequences of the recent devastating flooding. The UK was one of the first countries to announce funding (£1.5 million) to respond to the humanitarian need. We have now increased this to £16.5 million to support flood relief efforts. The UK contribution is also now over 10% of the joint UN and Government of Pakistan emergency appeal ($160 million). This flooding demonstrates how climate change is making extreme weather events both more intense and more frequent. The UK will continue to monitor the situation in Pakistan as the longer-term needs become clearer.

Development Aid: Climate Change

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what activities and programmes were funded through the International Climate Finance scheme in the 2022-23 financial year; what the titles of these activities and programmes were; and in which countries these were undertaken.

Vicky Ford: Details of all Official Development Assistance programmes are published on the UK's Development Tracker website at https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/ including key activities, finances and geographical focus. Programmes on the development tracker website can be filtered in order to only show those which are funded through the International Climate Finance scheme.

Ministry of Defence

Air Force: Training

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many RAF personnel are currently awaiting flying training.

James Heappey: The tables below show the number of RAF personnel currently awaiting flying training at each stage as of September 2022. On hold pre-flying training (these personnel are awaiting their first flying training course after completing their Phase 1 training): Fast Jet / Multi Engine / Air Mobility & ISTAR / Rotary Wing20RPAS10 On hold between Military Flying Training System (MFTS) courses (these personnel are held at various stages of the MFTS): Fast Jet / Multi Engine / Air Mobility & ISTAR / Rotary Wing260RPAS20 On hold post-MFTS and pre-Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) (these personnel have completed their MFTS training): Fast Jet10Multi Engine / Air Mobility & ISTAR20Rotary Wing20RPAS10  In accordance with the Data Protection Act and our obligations in relation to the protection of confidentiality when handling personal data, data have been rounded to the nearest 10. Due to the rounding methods used, totals may not always equal the sum of the parts. When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. There have always been planned holds in the flying training pipeline and the number of pilots holding before starting flying training has decreased since 2019. However, focused work to reduce the pre-UKMFTS hold, coupled with a reduction in frontline places available to ab-initio aircrew due to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent changes to the frontline requirement following the Integrated Review, has led to a greater number of pilots holding in the UKMFTS pipeline. The trainees currently on hold within the UKMFTS pipeline enable the RAF to ensure that all courses are fully utilised throughout the flying training pipeline. Aircrew on hold are fulfilling required and essential roles within the Armed Forces with an aim to expand their skills in other areas of MOD business. The RAF remains able to meet its frontline operational commitments and has sufficient qualified aircrew to do so.

Air Force: Training

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how long it takes on average to train (a) fast jet, (b) heavy lift and (c) rotary pilots.

James Heappey: The average time for trainee pilots completing flying training in the current Financial Year, to the point of joining an Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) is 4.8 years for Fast Jet; 5.4 years for Multi Engine (heavy lift) and; 6.9 years for Rotary Wing.The time taken to complete OCU training can vary across the aircraft types and will result in newly qualified pilots leaving OCUs as Limited Combat Ready or Combat Ready.There have always been planned holds built into the flying training pipeline to ensure all courses are fully utilised. Aircrew on hold fulfil other essential roles across Ministry of Defence (MOD), developing their skills in other areas of MOD business.

Air Force: Training

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to improve the capacity of RAF fighter pilot training.

James Heappey: The RAF constantly reviews its training pipeline and introduces measures as and when required in order to strike the best balance between pipeline supply and the frontline demand for new pilots. Such measures currently include a small number of pilots being trained on the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training programme in the USA as part of a 5-year commitment completing in FY 2024/25, with additional training capacity being requested through this programme. Other measures to increase capacity include reducing the length of Operational Conversion Unit syllabuses and making greater use of synthetic training. We are also working with allies and partners to examine whether UK pilots could be trained overseas, or where we might pool our resources to mutual benefit.The RAF remains able to meet its frontline operational commitments and has sufficient trained aircrew to do so.

Air Force: Training

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average wait time is for a training slot for RAF trainee pilots for (a) Typhoons, (b) F35s, (c) Hawk jets and (d) Hercules aircraft.

James Heappey: The average wait time for RAF trainee pilots from completing the Military Flying Training System (MFTS) to starting their respective Operational Conversion Units (OCU) for Typhoon is approximately 11 months and, for F35 is approximately 12 months.The Hawk jet is the Hawk T2 trainer aircraft at RAF Valley and used for Advanced Fast Jet Training. The time between phases of training within MFTS are dictated by a number of variables, including the performance standard of the trainee pilot.There are no training slots for the C130J Hercules, as all training ceased for new pilots in November 2021 in anticipation of the aircraft's retirement.There have always been planned holds in the flying training pipeline to ensure all courses are fully utilised. The RAF remains able to meet frontline operational commitments and has sufficient qualified aircrew to do so.

Cabinet Office

Honours

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of prohibiting the bestowing of honours on individuals who have donated over one million pounds to the political party in Government.

Edward Argar: All honours are awarded on the basis of merit. Donations to any political party should not be regarded as a reason for disqualification from receiving an honour.There are clear procedures in place to protect the honours system and to ensure the integrity of the selection process. There are specialist honours committees which provide recommendations to the Prime Minister. Each committee is chaired by an independent chair and comprising a majority of independent members.More broadly, fundraising by political parties is a legitimate part of the democratic process. The alternative is taxpayer-funding of political campaigning, which would mean less money for frontline services like schools, police and hospitals.

Members: Correspondence

Chris Bryant: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when his Department plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Rhondda dated 10 August 2022 on the (a) accuracy of and (b) delay in publication of transparency data on ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and external meetings.

Edward Argar: The Cabinet Office replied to the hon. member’s letter of 10 August 2022 regarding transparency data on 27 September 2022.

Department for International Trade

Foreign Investment in UK: Carbon Emissions

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to her Department’s inward investment results published on 28 June 2022, how many of the (a) 1,131 involved FDI projects recorded in 2020-21 and (b) 1,174 involved FDI projects recorded in 2021-22 have been verified as net-zero investments aligned to the ten point plan for a green industrial revolution.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to her Department’s inward investment results published on 28 June 2022, how many of the (a) 47,784 new jobs created in 2020-21 and (b) 72,906 new jobs created in 2021-22 related to involved FDI projects verified as net-zero investments aligned to the ten point plan for a green industrial revolution.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to her Department’s inward investment results published on 28 June 2022, how many of the (a) 16,174 jobs safeguarded in 2020-21 and (b) 6,665 jobs safeguarded in 2021-22 related to involved FDI projects verified as net-zero investments aligned to the ten point plan for a green industrial revolution.

Mr Marcus Fysh: Recently released statistics show the Department for International Trade (DIT) supported inward investment that contributes to the Government’s green industrial revolution agenda. These statistics can be found by accessing https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/department-for-international-trade-inward-investment-results-2021-to-2022 This shows that DIT supported nearly £13 billion of net zero aligned foreign investment in the financial year 2021 to 2022, creating almost 9,000 new jobs. A previous DIT publication related to the green industrial revolution agenda can be found by accessinghttps://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/net-zero-related-inward-investment-in-the-uk-18-november-2020-to-24-september-2021 This shows that since the 10 Point Plan was announced on 18 November 2020 to 24 September 2021, DIT supported £2.6 billion worth of net zero aligned foreign investment, creating nearly 3,000 new jobs.